The present invention pertains to a device for treating a band-shaped substrate with a gas, wherein the device contains a source for the gas and a pattern carrier that revolves with the same circumferential speed as the substrate, with the side of the pattern carrier that faces away from the substrate being connected to the gas source, and with the pattern carrier containing openings for achieving a defined supply of the gas to the desired regions of the substrate.
Devices of the aforementioned type can serve different purposes. For example, it is possible to carry out a chemical reaction on the substrate by means of the supplied gas or to produce a coating on the substrate. Devices which operate with a gas that is usually referred to as a vapor that condensates on the substrate are broadly utilized. These devices are usually referred to as vaporization devices. Such a vaporization device is, for example, the object of DE 197 34 477. This known vaporization device serves for vapor-depositing oil onto a film to be metallized such that in an ensuing processing step no metal coating is produced within the oil-vaporized regions. In the vaporization device described in this publication, the pattern carrier is realized in the form of a screen cylinder that is driven in a revolving fashion. A stationary oil nozzle that is connected to a vaporization vessel is arranged within this screen cylinder. During the operation of the vaporization device, vapor flows from the oil nozzle against the foil to be coated, namely through the screen cylinder that is in the form of a pattern carrier with the vapor producing a pattern that corresponds to the openings in the pattern carrier on the foil.
This known treatment device, which is in the form of a vaporization device, has a relatively complicated design. Since different patterns frequently need to be applied in the coating of substrates, it is necessary to exchange the respective screen cylinder that serves as the pattern carrier when the pattern needs to be changed. This screen cylinder is a relatively thick-walled and correspondingly heavy component that is particularly complicated to install and remove when processing wide foils, as well as costly with respect to its manufacture. Since one respective pattern carrier is required for each pattern to be produced, the high manufacturing costs represent a significant limitation to the use of treatment devices with such a pattern carrier.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to enable the production of different patterns as inexpensively as possible for use in the treatment device of the initially mentioned type.